A Lafayette man who died in a crash with a parked big rig was a gifted mechanic and racing enthusiast who worked as a pit crew member and showed promise as a race car driver, friends said Tuesday.

Sergey Ryssev, 22, was found dead Sunday night by a passing ambulance crew who discovered his car wedged under the back of the big rig parked on Port Chicago Highway beneath the Highway 4 overpass.

The circumstances are under investigation. Police did not receive calls about the crash and have not been able to pinpoint when exactly it occurred. Concord police Sgt. Brandon Richey, who oversees traffic investigations, said there were no tire marks near the big rig, suggesting that Ryssev’s 1994 BMW 325is did not slow down before the crash.

“The lack of tire marks is an oddity,” Richey said.

An autopsy concluded that Ryssev died from massive trauma. Whether alcohol or drugs were involved will not be known until toxicology results are completed in several weeks.

Residents and motorists have long complained about trailer big rigs parked beneath the overpass, which they say poses a traffic hazard to drivers coming from nearby offramps and streets. Signs in the area say vehicles taller than 6 feet are prohibited from parking there, but Richey said police are researching whether the warnings on those signs are enforceable or merely advisory.

Friends said Ryssev immigrated from Siberia as a youth and worked as a mechanic at East Bay BMW in Pleasanton. It was a job he had worked toward dating to his days in the Sacramento area, where he took training courses and got his start at Valley Motorwerks, an independent BMW repair shop in Rancho Cordova.

Kevin Borchers, Valley Motorwerks lead mechanic, said the towering young man — he stood about 6 feet 5 — showed natural talent for the job.

“You’re either born with the ability or not, and he was,” Borchers said.

Walter Ford, who runs the shop, said he decided to hire Ryssev before he finished school, which he said isn’t typical and a clear sign of Ryssev’s ability. Ryssev had walked into the shop as a customer and, after Ford and Borchers got a look at the modifications he had made to his own BMW, he left with a job.

Ryssev was remembered as a lighthearted presence in the shop, often going out of his way to get a laugh from co-workers.

“He’d work around and meow like a cat, for no reason at all,” Ford said, laughing.

Outside the shop, Ryssev was a member of the pit crew for Brimstone Dynasty, a racing team co-sponsored by Valley Motorwerks. That gave him the chance to drive on racetracks and Ford said he was comfortable behind the wheel.

“He did really good at that, too,” Ford said. “He knew what he was doing.”

But both Borchers and Ford were quick to point out that though Ryssev showed promise on the racetrack, he left the speed there and was careful about his driving on city roads.

“He never raced on the street, never sped on the street,” Ford said. “(His death) must have been a complete freak accident.”

Robert Salonga is a Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter covering crime and public safety for The Mercury News. A San Jose native, he attended UCLA and has a Master's degree in journalism from the University of Maryland. He previously reported in Washington, D.C., Salinas and the East Bay, and is a middling triathlete. Reach him the low-tech way at 408-920-5002.

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